Sailor ends three uninterrupted years at sea

Published online: Jun 18, 2010News

A U.S. sailor has returned to shore after reportedly spending more than three years at sea without touching dry land, and the Guinness World Records is looking into the claim that the trip sets a new record for longest voyage.

Reid Stowe, 58, docked in Manhattan Thursday after his 1,152 day voyage, and was greeted by his girlfriend and 23-month child who he had never seen, the BBC reports.

Stowe set off from New Jersey in the 70-foot, two-masted sailing boat in April 2007.

He originally set off with his girlfriend, Soanya Ahmad, until she had to return to shore after she became pregnant. The couple agreed that he would continue without her, despite it meaning that he would miss the birth of their son.

He said that seeing her go was the hardest part of his trip.

"Before we left, we had an agreement that if I had to get off for any reason, he would go on," Ahmad said. "I knew if he came back and didn't finish the voyage, he would just go back again. There was no way he wasn't going to finish it."